Maj. Gen. Gus McLachlan (Ret'd)

I want to thank and acknowledge Senators Shoebridge and Collins for coming. There's a lot going on in Australia at the moment and for two of our federal senators to make time to be with us is significant.

So thank you. And also our state and local representatives. But I think most importantly, from my point of view, Jill Lestrange and Kate Eccles. The community is incredibly lucky to have you both for your organisational energy. My involvement in this campaign, I think that's the right term. Jill and I were on the ABC 7.30 Report together.

I was defending Victoria Barracks Paddington and Jill already had started the process to defend this wonderful built and landscape environment. We met for coffee at Frenchies to share tactics and I was very soon enlisted into the Save Penguin campaign as well. So if you want to catch us, we're usually at Frenchies at least once a week.

I'm not a Mossman resident. I had 37 years in the army, lived in 21 different places, moved my family 21 different times. But I am an active veteran volunteer with a wonderful veteran charity called Saltwater Veterans. Where are you, Scott? Scott is our founder and we run a veteran support charity from Land at Penguin that will be part of the land that is sold to private interest.

Should this go ahead? I do want to give you a bit more context about the government's position. I have spent 37 years of my career being apolitical and it is my intention to continue to be so. So it's my job to pass on some facts. I do accept that there is surplus land in the defence portfolio that needs to be resolved.

Governments have been seeking to address this for an extended period of time. Interestingly, it is often not Defence that are the resistance to selling the surplus land. Of course, it is the community who wants a site. Mr. Marles has been very clear about our strategic circumstances. Worst condition since 1939, to use his language.

I should also comment that he did say at the release of the National Defence Strategy Update at the press club that he's sick of getting advice from retired generals and former public servants. I'm one of those people he is sick of. Unfortunately, the government has not matched that rhetoric with resources. We are also spending an enormous amount of money on a nuclear submarine that may or may not eventuate in six to eight years.

And we have spent already this year more than we have ever spent on a defence procurement project, including the F35 Joint Strike Fighter. And as I said, we are yet to see confirmation that we will receive a second hand submarine in six to eight years. The Government announced in the budget that there will be $14 billion of additional spending in the budget for defence.

$7 billion of that is private sector money, private equity money that in fact they can't appropriate through the Commonwealth funds. So $14 billion is now $7 billion. About $5 [billion] of the remaining amount is currency fluctuation adjustments for our strong Australian dollar. But importantly, two or three billion dollars from our point of view, are already banked in the budget for the sale of defence land.

So as a number of people have said here already, the government has made the decision to sell defence property. And with all due respect to some of the locations that are on the list, they will not generate a net gain of $2 to $3 billion dollars without the sale in Sydney, particularly of Victoria Barracks Paddington and HMAS Penguin.

I completely support the view, as someone who spent their career in the service of my country, that if the defence does not need this land, then the land belongs to the community and we should give it back, not hand it to property. Develop. The other. And I won't. I apologise, Senator Shubridge, if I'm stealing your thunder, but through excellent work that Senator Shubridge has made at the committee convened by Senator Collins, the $20 billion that the defence has spent on consultant fees to come to what is a deeply flawed plan, I have found quite shocking.

Now it's important though, for us as a community to make sure that we can point out that there are plausible alternate uses for this land. And I think the opening left to us by the Assistant Minister Peter Khalil, is through consultation to identify plausible ways that we as a community can use that land, that preserve that land.

For all Australians, for all New South Welshmen and for all the people of Sydney. I can see a clear future where veterans groups like Scotts are operating from that location, making access to our incredible environment available to veterans that are troubled with mental health and transition issues. I can see a future where there are school and community camps run in those buildings which are in incredibly good condition.

The 80 kilometre harbour hike that has been already described will need places for respite and camping. There are land care and nature opportunities, including nurseries for native plants and of course, there is an ongoing need for parking and access to the sports oval down there at Mosman, which is being upgraded to include access for the young women's teams, who now double the use of that facility.

So, my involvement is to just make sure we all understand the government has made a decision to sell these sites to raise $2 to $3 billion of revenue to go into the defence budget. We need to come together as a community and make sure that it is clear that there are plausible ways that we as a community can preserve those sites for the access for everybody.

And, of course, we have the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust as a platform to do so.